Colorado Republican primary election voters spoke loudly and clearly that they want mainstream conservative candidates who can win a general election in a state dominated by unaffiliated voters. They soundly rejected stolen election conspiracy theorists who would drive Republicans into the ground.

Republican Senate nominee Joe O’Dea’s blue collar background stands in stark contrast to the patrician 14-year incumbent, Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet. Bennet has voted 99 percent of the time for President Joe Biden’s failed policies that have driven inflation and crime to historic highs.

O’Dea defeated the ultimate stolen-election conspiracy theorist, state Rep. Ron Hanks, who opened his campaign by shooting a defenseless, defunct Xerox copier emblazoned with a “Dominion Voting Systems” sign. Hanks claims the Chinese have infiltrated Dominion and manipulated Colorado’s election results.

Former Jefferson County Clerk Pam Anderson, one of the most respected election experts in the nation, defeated two stolen-election conspiracists including discredited Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters. Anderson is in the tradition of 32 consecutive years of Republican women who served as secretary of state as competent, non-partisan stewards of that office, unlike the incompetent, blindly partisan Democratic incumbent, Jena Griswold.

Peters has been criminally indicted by a Mesa County grand jury for illegally tampering with election equipment and she continues to be under FBI investigation. Peters also was arrested for defying a judge’s order and she is accused of kicking police officers during the arrest.

You would think that Hanks and Peters might accept defeat and move on as has long been the tradition in Colorado, especially Peters who faces a trial on state charges sometime later this year and the possibility of federal charges as well.

But Peters and Hanks are incapable of believing there is anything but massive support for their paranoid obsessions and the only way they could lose is if the election is fraudulent.

Peters and Hanks demanded the secretary of state conduct a recount because “extensive malfeasance occurred in the June 2022 primary, and the apparent outcome of this election does not reflect the will of Colorado voters.”

They cite their victories at the Colorado Republican State Assembly in April that included about 3,500 delegates elected by 10,000 or so attendees at Republican precinct caucuses and how they won isolated “straw polls” at sparsely attended Republican events during the nomination process.

Around 10,000 Republicans participated in the caucus-assembly process that Peters and Hanks dominated but more than 630,000 Republican and unaffiliated voters voted in the Republican primary election that overwhelmingly nominated O’Dea and Anderson.

Peters also cites some mythical “Republican poll” that allegedly showed her winning a primary with 47 percent as proof the election was stolen. Peters has not identified who conducted this “Republican poll” because it does not exist.

This is a reversal of the old political cliché that the only poll that counts is on Election Day. For Peters and Hanks, the only poll that counts is the one they made up.

If a candidate loses a race by less than one half of one percent the state will pay for a recount, otherwise the cost must be incurred by the losing candidates. In this case, Peters and Hanks would each pay more than $236,000.

The deadline was Friday, June 15 with Peters and Hanks failing to show up with checks. Where is wealthy pillow magnate and fellow conspiracist Mike Lindell when you need him most?

Peters and Hanks made yet another run at the secretary of state demanding the recount be done by hand, which was also rejected because state law requires a recount to be done in the same manner as was done in the regular election.

As irresponsible as Peters and Hanks have been since they were soundly defeated in June, they are strengthening the campaigns of O’Dea, Anderson and every other Republican nominee in the November election. Colorado voters watched Republicans clean up their act by rejecting stolen-election conspiracy theorists in primaries at every level. They know these nominees did not flinch in the face of tremendous pressure from conspiracists.

So, thank you to Tina Peters and Ron Hanks! As they continue to plunge to new lows in their conspiracy obsessions, our mainstream Republican nominees are poised to actually win elections against Democrats who are stuck defending record-breaking inflation and crime.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who managed campaigns for U.S. Sen. Hank Brown, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, and Governor Bill Owens.